TORRIE ALLEN

Profession: 

President & CEO, Arts Midwest

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Torrie Allen has more than 30 years wide-ranging experience in national, regional and local arts leadership including executive and artistic management, fundraising, marketing, policy, adjudication, grantmaking and international performance.

In 2019, he succeeded David Fraher as the new president and CEO of Arts Midwest. From 2016 to 2019, he presided over all philanthropic activity at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He was chief officer of development and marketing at Alaska Public Media from 2012 to 2016 and executive and artistic director of Anchorage Opera from 2006 to 2012. Prior to joining Anchorage Opera, he was the director of the National Patrons Council at Americans for the Arts.

Allen has served as a grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wallace Foundation. He currently serves on the board of National Arts Strategies. He has provided commissioned and volunteer service for the National Endowment for the Arts, Americans for the Arts, World Affairs Council, University of Alaska Advisory Board, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Community Commander Program, Arts & Business Council of New York, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Alaska State Council on the Arts. 

Prior to his career in nonprofit leadership, Allen spend a decade traveling the world as a professional concert and opera singer. His professional performance credits include Opéra National de Paris; Teatro Real Madrid; Bregenz Festpiel. Austria; Rudolfinum, Prague; Carnegie Hall; St. Petersburg State Symphony, Russia; Metropolitan Opera and the Aspen Music Festival.

Allen holds degrees from UCLA and the Boston Conservatory. He is a Fellow of the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program through Harvard Business School, University of Michigan and University of Texas at Austin.

DELANEY KEATING

Profession: 

Executive Director, StartUp Colorado

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Delaney is a seasoned creative, entrepreneur, and change agent.  She successfully owned, operated, and exited her first company and has since been dedicated to fostering ingrained cultural values for art and innovation. As Executive Director of Startup Colorado, her mission is to drive greater coordination within the entrepreneurial ecosystem on behalf of rural entrepreneurs and the communities they call home. She is an unwavering believer in the potential of ideas, the people behind them, and the places they create.

DONNA COLLINS

Profession: 

Executive Director, Ohio Arts Council

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Donna Collins serves as the executive director of the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically. Collins brings more than 20 years of experience in leading a state agency and statewide non-profit organizations, demonstrating consistent success and solid results that impact policy, education, economic development, and arts and culture. At the state level Collins is a founding member of the Ohio Prison Arts Connection, a Fellow with the Ohio Art Education Association, and served as the Leader in Residence at Marietta College. In 2015 John R. Kasich, Governor of the State of Ohio, inducted Collins into the Association of Ohio Commodores whose mission is to assist the State of Ohio in its advancement in all areas contributing to the economic growth and development of the State, and the greater prosperity of its citizens. At the national level Collins is an elected Board member of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) and a member of the ArtPlace America Central Appalachian Network Assembly.

Kristina Joyce

Profession: 

State Director, Kentucky Small Business Development Center

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Kristina Joyce was born in Appalachia and started her first company at the age of 23. Her experience with entrepreneurship and business consists of creative arts, commercial, governmental and academic practice. In her career spanning 30 plus years, she has founded various ventures that include creative arts, manufacturing, advertising, business coaching as well as developing and teaching entrepreneurship and arts programs for universities and colleges.  As a consultant, she has provided expertise in leadership, management, project planning and strategic development throughout the U.S.

Kristina has served in Executive Leadership roles for the following:

• State Director: Kentucky Small Business Development Center (SBDC) hosted by the University of Kentucky 
• State Director: West Virginia SBDC, hosted by the State of West Virginia Department of Commerce 
• Program Administrator: Entrepreneurship and Business Coaching Center supported by Southern WV Community and Technical College, Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the Hatfield McCoy Recreational Trails Authority
• Business Coaching Director: Entrepreneurial League System, LLC.
• Founder and CEO of five companies

Kristina has designed curriculum, taught and initiated instruction for multiple academic institutions and her education includes a Master’s in Organizational Leadership, two undergraduate degrees in art and education as well as completing professional graduate studies from Harvard Extension and becoming  certified from the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative.

She has served on multiple Boards throughout the country that include entrepreneurship, business, academic, innovation technology, civic and arts associations. 

Kristina currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her Tibetan Spaniel, Paris and is a proud mother to son Aaron, his wife Krista, and proud grandmother to Dylan and Declan.

JIM GRACE

Profession: 

Executive Director, Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston

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Jim Grace is the Executive Director of the A&BC. Previously he was the Executive Director of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts (VLA) from 1998 until 2008, when it merged with the A&BC. Jim has experience working with artists and arts organizations in the areas of legacy planning, publishing law, public art and social practice art projects, copyright, trademark, nonprofit incorporation and mergers, negotiation training, artist live/work development, and nonprofit board development. Jim was an adjunct professor for Boston University’s Masters in Arts Administration Program for more than five years where he co-taught a course on Legal Issues in Arts Administration. Currently, Jim teaches workshops locally and nationally on a variety of legal and artist professional development topics. 

Jim is also a working author. He is the co-author of best-selling The Worst Case Scenario Handbook: Golf. To date he has been involved in the publication of over eight books. Jim serves on the Brookline Community Foundation and has served on the board of Associated Grant Makers (now Philanthropy Massachusetts) and the Private Sector Council of Americans for the Arts. He is a founding board member of the Arts Services Coalition and a former founding board member of the Fort Point Cultural Coalition (FPCC). The FPCC developed Midway Studios — 89 units of artist live/work space in downtown Boston.